Dark Angels Note 90

Dearest Friends,

Very excited to welcome the marvellous Susanne Wakefield to this week’s note. As the coordinator of our Dark Angels programme, many of you will have already experienced Susanne’s easy charm and enviable organisational skills. If you don’t already follow her delicious posts on Insta, do it now. You won’t be disappointed.

1. Tell us about something you’re working on right now. 

Well, I started a new newsletter back in January. It’s called The Working Lunch and it’s a collection of four lunch ideas each week aimed at people who work from home.  I’m really enjoying creating the ideas for each edition, and the challenge. I’m also enjoying the snippets of conversation that happen around the newsletter each week. People get quite passionate about food! What I didn’t factor in was that I really should create a spreadsheet to catalogue and tag everything to avoid possible duplication and to create an archive. I’ll add that to the to-do list.

Get some lunchtime inspiration by signing up for the newsletter here.

 
2. Can you recommend something for us to read?

I’ve recently read The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan. It’s a delightful book about people, their connections with each other, places, stories, and misplaced objects, woven with a little mystery and magic. So that one, or The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. Most people seem to have already read that though.

 
3. What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever read or received?  

Not advice, as such. More action. Make it a habit and a commitment. For me that was joining in with Write52 – ‘Create something original. Once a week. Every week. For a year.’ 

4. Share one thing you do when you get stuck.

I write a fair few social media posts every week for clients and inevitably, from time to time, it proves incredibly tricky to forge something as seemingly simple as a 280-character caption. If I do get really stuck, I force myself to pretend I’m talking to that one person that I want to read it. I think to myself, if I were sat on the front desk for this business and their customer walked in, what would I say to them without having time to carefully construct what I wanted to say. I write down what I’d say, and then edit from there.

 
5. What’s your desert island book and why? 

Presumably I’ve been stranded there as I was on my way to a holiday? In which case I’d probably have Underland by Robert MacFarlane packed as a holiday read. It’s been on my bedside table for 8 months and I’ve only got as far as page 91! Wait. How long am I stuck there for?  Perhaps a book about how to survive on a desert island would be a better choice?

Lovely, thank you Susanne. Great shout on Write 52!

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Telling Stories – A One Day Workshop
There’s still a couple of places available on this one day course. Join Neil Baker and John Simmons to explore new ways of using storytelling techniques in your business and personal writing. We’ll be working with a series of creative and playful exercises to help you make, shape and remake powerful stories. If you’re new to Dark Angels, the day will be a perfect introduction to our approach to business writing and creativity. And if you’ve worked with us before, it’s a chance to try new exercises and recharge your creative batteries.

Date: 27th April 10:30 – 16:30
Venue: October Gallery, Central London
Fee: £275
Reserve your place here.

Online Advanced Course
Jamie Jauncey & Richard Pelletier return in May to guide you deeper into the world of Dark Angels with exercises that build on the Foundation Course and bring a greater focus on developing your personal writing voice.

A mix of live online sessions, fast-paced writing exercises, and time spent on your own, we’ll help you find surprising new ways to explore language, as we draw on storytelling, business communications, fiction and poetry.

The Details
Two-hour sessions, twice a week, for one month.
Dates: each Tuesday & Thursday, May 2 – 26
UK 5.30 pm – 7.30 pm
US East Coast  12.30 pm – 2.30 pm
US West Coast 9.30 am – 11.30 am

Fee: £795 / E895 / $1095
Full course details are on the website. Contact Susanne to book your place.

 
Weekly Tuesday Gatherings

This is a lovely hour of reading, writing and communing. Everyone is welcome; in fact invite a friend along. We meet at 7pm UK time. To join us, click here on the night. There’s no need to register in advance and we’ll be using the same link every week from now on.

Be well, keep reading, keep writing and know that we’re always here.. 

From everyone at Dark Angels